Sherwood Forest #1: Pondering Our Wooden Orphans

I find myself on the drive into work this morning looking at the world through a new set of eyes: everywhere I look all the sudden I see scraps of usable wood going to waste: burn piles, stray fence boards, stacks of broken shipping pallets, old furniture destined for the landfill. Would it be obsessive if I said I have an entirely new appreciation of twigs?

It just seems to be everywhere and one of those things I didn’t notice before being bitten by the woodworking bug.

I want to grab it all up, store it away, strip it, clean it, and give it a new home. Imagine all the beautiful knots, crotches, and grain patterns that won’t ever get to be appreciated. It’s like a chef (or in my case a couch potato watching a chef on the Food Network) watching pound after pound of fillet mignon being used to mop the floor with. Oh, the travesty!

There once was a hero named Robin Hood who reached a breaking point and started recycling the dignity and livelihoods of the English peasant class. Maybe that spirit blew through the trees and entered my dreams last night. Maybe it was just heartburn. All I know is the urge to respond is almost palpable.

I’ve had all I can stands, I can’t stands no more, as Popeye would say. I don’t have a proper pickup truck, but when the seats are laid down in the Cherokee I can get a fair amount of stuff in there. From here on out ol’ Pappy’s gonna knock on people’s doors, ring a few telephones, slip quietly at night into recovery mode and rescue these darling children from an undeserved fate.

It is, after all, only right… :)

Disclaimer: Pappy knows it’s wrong to steal. Any indication or interpretation that the previous post advocates or reflects a gaping hole in his morals should be attributed to literary license rather than a moral deficit.

15 comments so far

Isn’t it the truth, Pappy. Every new hobby seems to open up things never seen or felt before. I am that way about wood and also about metal detecting. Every time I see an old house about to be wrecked, I want to slip in there with my detector. I was bumming around the beach a while back and found a man’s diamond ring, so there are treasures out there! When a hurricane comes thru northern Florida, I see all the trees that have been blown down and I wish I had a chain saw!

2 weeks ago there was “bulk garbage” pickup in my area. The tables and chairs, entertainment centers and other wood products that was thrown out for garbage was amazing. DW would have killed me if I brought any more stuff home. :-)

I just found out about a great source of lumber. My nephew erects steel buildings. The pieces come in on truck seperated by 80” 3×4 hardwood blocks. He says there are 3-4 pickup loads each building. I’m going to turn the waste from the next building they do into hardwood floors. I figure I can get a planer with the money I save….:)

John I gotta tell you I’m inspired in no small part due to you. Your projects were the last thing I was reading before bed last night – I can’t think of a single one that I saw that you didn’t make from recycled material. Really got my mind going…

Zuki, that must have been like pulling teeth to drive past :)

I had my first “Robin Hood” experience at work shortly after posting this, but the details will have to wait ‘til the next blog posting. I’m thinking of going with “Sherwood Forest #2: Wherein Pappy Discovers Tights” as a title. Whatdayathink?

(FYI: in our local city they have a bylaw that says that anything put on the curb belongs to the city and taking it is “stealing” and you can be charged. Not sure what their intention was behind this law but it just doesn’t sit right with me…. the most stuff we can keep out of the landfill / recycling, the better. Even if it is only for one more, single, use. )

Took the family and my mom over to Woodburn to shop at the outlet stores today. En route we drove through farm and nursery country. Ten minutes on the road and I see the remains of a large, and I do mean large, oak sitting half in the ditch. The base section was probably about 5 1/2 feet long and at least 6 or 7 feet in diameter. Tapped the brakes, winced real hard, and kept driving – no way I can get it in the Jeep with a car full of people. May drive out there in the morning and see if the nursery folks will let me haul it off. What I’ll do with it after that is a mystery as I have nothing to mill it down with. Wonder what my neighbor with the chainsaw could do about that…